(Don’t) Get Stressed: The Most And Least Stressful Jobs

You can choose your job according to your skills and talents, or you could choose your profession depending on your level of stress resistance. Overall, stress has a bad reputation. Then again, some people seem to need a measure of stress to get going at all. Here’s a list of jobs for the stress-averse and those who get a kick from being stressed-out.

The career site CareerCast.com has come up with an index for stress at work. They take into account 11 stress factors, such as the amount of travel involved, working with deadlines, competitiveness, physical demands, risk to one’s own life or other’s lives or beeing in the public eye. “The amount of stress a worker experiences can be predicted, in part, by looking at the typical demands and crises inherent in his or her job”, CareerCast.com states on its website in the way of an explanation.

I doesn’t come as a surprise then, that men and women enlisted in the armed forces are top of the list. At least soldiers on active duty on the frontlines have to endure extremely high levels of stress. Though the level of stress probably drops off the further you get away from the battlefield. Even so, stress can also be caused by having to move from base to base, which isn’t one of the factors counted in by CareerCast.com. (Incidentally, being a soldier is one of the worst paid jobs, at least for the rank and file.)

Overall, it’s jobs in the security forces and services, the soldiers, firefighters and police officers, who rank high on stress. The amount pilots have to travel causes a lot of stress too. Also, those who have to engage with the public are likely to get stressed-out. Professions such as public relations, being a reporter or broadcaster are among the top-ten, also because they work with tight deadlines. Taxi drivers, who have to navigate congested streets and are constantly on the move are prone to stress too.

If you can’t cope with stress whatsoever, you can still contemplate getting a job in a security related job, namely as an information security analyst. With a score of 3.8, it’s the last position on the list of stressfulness. (Incidentally, it’s one of the best paid jobs). You are likely to get more stressed being a librarian or a jeweler, which already rank low. Surprisingly, being a university professor is one of the least stressful jobs. Then again, it’s specifically talking about tenured positions.